The friction between the two sides had been building for a while, but it hit a high point recently when Rose pointedly refused to help in the recruitment of star free agent Carmelo Anthony.

"I know it’s been there," Rose told the Sun-Times. “I heard there were some upset people.

"I’m happy I didn’t personally see it," he added. "I don’t want to see that. I kind of wonder where it was coming from because it seemed like whenever I was around, everything was all right. It bothered me because when I wasn’t around, I would hear from certain people that everything wasn’t all right."

He was not a willing participant in a part of the recruitment process that had him work out in front of Anthony. He also did not attend a dinner with Bulls management, other players and Anthony — something that left the team "irate," according to the report. Rose's camp infuriated the team even more by getting out ahead and painting Rose as an "innocent bystander" in the process while the Bulls management failed to sign Anthony.

Rose didn't comment directly on the Anthony recruitment, but he did praise Gasol and said he was looking forward to playing with him.

"That’s someone that I knew I could play with," Rose said of Gasol. "You think about Pau, him now being in the East, what he’ll be able to achieve with the way we play, the way we dump the ball in the post a lot. It could be great."